Beyond access: deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Chinese mainstream schools

China’s learning in regular classrooms policy has expanded mainstream schooling for students with disabilities, including deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) students. Yet placement does not necessarily ensure participation, learning, or belonging. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 20 hearing parents recruited through hearing and speech rehabilitation centers in five provinces, this qualitative study examines accounts of orally educated D/HH children who primarily used spoken Chinese, used cochlear implants and/or hearing aids, and did not use sign language at school. Reflexive thematic analysis identified three interrelated conditions shaping inclusion: (1) hearing-oriented classrooms that limited access to instruction; (2) peer settings where communication differences and visible assistive hearing technologies made belonging conditional, with parents describing loneliness, embarrassment, and withdrawal; and (3) support arrangements assembled through family advocacy rather than institutionalized accommodation. Using visitorship as a sensitizing concept, the study shows how formal access may coexist with conditional participation and family-managed accommodation.